Rob Van Dam Recalls Being Ripped Off By Promoters Early In His Career

On the latest episode of 1 Of A Kind, Rob Van Dam talked about the early days of his pro wrestling career. You can check out some highlights below:

On whether he yelled during his early promos: “I was uncomfortable as hell trying to do the promos when I started out. And I can’t imagine — I mean, yelling would have made me even more uncomfortable, because I’m just young and green and a room full of veterans and watching them do their thing. And they seem to know what they want to say, and they go and they go up there and they say it. I don’t know if it’s drawing money or not, but I know that’s the goal. And then here I am like, ‘How am I going to answer this question about how am I looking forward to Friday night? How am I going to answer that in a way that’s going to sell tickets? And how am I going to answer that in a way that doesn’t make me sound like a butthole?’ There’s no way I would have just broken into an Ultimate Warrior promo.

“I’m sure I was like, ‘What are my strengths?’ Everyone has what they think are interesting about themselves based on external stimuli, right? So it’s like, ‘Usually people pop when I when I do this, I’m going to do it.’ And I bend their elbow the wrong way, or whatever, because they’re used to getting a reaction from it, that’s their thing. I think that’s probably true in a lot of cases such as this. I probably wanted to show my dimples, you know. ‘Hey, I’m a white meat babyface from Battle Creek, Michigan, and I came all the way down here to get in the ring on Friday because I love this city… I came all the way down, and just wait till you see me on Friday. You’ll see what I’m talking about.’ No, there’s no way I would have yelled. Even when they directed me to yell later, it was still weird. I don’t know if anyone actually did, but it would have been weird.”

On being ripped off by promoters: “I was talking to Katie earlier, we were talking about getting ripped off by promoters. And I remembered two different times when I was really young where the promoter didn’t have money for me. I’ve already wrestled, I’m trying to get paid just like the rest of the card. And the guy’s telling me he’s going to mail me a check. So I’m thinking, ‘There’s maybe a 20% chance that I’ll get the check in the mail. But if I beat the dude’s ass, there’s no way I’m getting the check.’So should I beat his ass because he fucked me over it he’s probably not going to pay me anyway, or should I just hope that the check arrives and go home?’ And that’s happened a couple of times to me when I was younger. And it was because, you know, I really wanted the 150 bucks, you know>? Otherwise if I didn’t care about the money, then I would have just beat the dude’s ass, and I would have felt better about it.

“One of the times was a real famous one. This dude, his name was Joe Lake. And he ran this show in Detroit, an indie show that was like a WrestleMania show. He had, like, everybody. I think Hercules was on that, and Jim Neidhart and Greg Valentine. I think Honky Tonk Man, me, and Sabu. He just had so many people on it, and then when it came time to get paid, he stiffed everybody. The way I remember Jim Neidhart the next day, he wouldn’t get on his plane to go home. And instead went with the guy to his work and to where his mom works to get his money. And the other guys who could got it right from the box office before that emptied out. And these guys were serious about, ‘Hey man, we didn’t just fucking leave our homes to come here and work our asses off so you could f**king be entertained. You owe us.’ But you know, it’s a dirty business. You know, sometimes that happens. You try to avoid it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 1 Of A Kind an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

Rob Van Dam Recalls Being Ripped Off By Promoters Early In His Career

Rob Van Dam Recalls Being Ripped Off By Promoters Early In His Career

Rob Van Dam Recalls Being Ripped Off By Promoters Early In His Career

Rob Van Dam Recalls Being Ripped Off By Promoters Early In His Career

Rob Van Dam Recalls Being Ripped Off By Promoters Early In His Career